Planning for Urban Heat Resilience

Abstract

Heat is the number one weather-related killer in the United States. As average global temperatures continue to rise, the threats of both extreme heat events and chronic heat are projected to increase. Heat disproportionately affects marginalized residents and those who face systematic inequities such as workplace safety, housing quality, energy affordability, transportation reliability, and healthcare access. But planning can shape heat risk. Planners will be key practitioners in helping their communities achieve greater heat resiliency by proactively managing and mitigating heat across the many systems and sectors it affects. PAS Report 600 provides holistic guidance to help practitioners increase urban heat resilience equitably in the communities they serve. It provides an in-depth overview of the contributors to urban heat and equity implications, and it lays out an urban heat resilience framework and collection of strategies to help planners mitigate and manage heat across a variety of plans, policies, and actions. Now is the time for the planning profession to step up and take a leading role in coordinating communities' efforts to proactively build urban heat resilience. This PAS Report equips planners with the background knowledge, planning framework, and catalog of comprehensive approaches they need to advance urban heat resilience and create a more equitable and sustainable future in an increasingly urban and warming world.